There were major issues with instructor shortages a couple of years ago. IR instructors had 10 students at a point. VFR training was quoted as taking 22 weeks. It took 30 weeks. IR training should have taken 12 weeks. It took 20 weeks. I don’t know the situation now, but that was at the start of the instructor exodus. I heard that to mitigate this they were giving students hefty periods of leave between training stages. To alleviate the flow.
But, like it’s been mentioned above, at least they have the common sense to delay start dates to a point where at least some training continuity can be maintained.
As opposed to starting people next month, then having a few months gap between ground school and VFR training due to lack of instructors. Then a few months gap between VFR and IR training due to lack of IR instructors, etc. All of which lead
to a course taking well in excess of 20 months to complete.
As it’s also been mentioned, I can’t imagine they’d have much to lose by admitting that they have to prioritise the airline courses. The likes of EZY get cheaper rates on CAE/L3 sims, in return for running “sponsored schemes” through their respective schools. The airline loves is because they get cheaper sim slots, and a constant flow of young, motivated cadets. The school especially love it because the can talk about “airline placement” statistics, and how about X amount of students walked straight into airline jobs. This brings more people through the door, meaning more money. And the student loves it because they get their job at the end. Everyone’s a winner! So it makes very obvious business sense to prioritise airline cadet schemes, which I can’t argue with.